I knew you are OR I knew you were?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi All,

May I know which of these 2 sentences are correct?

I knew you were from Russia but someone told me that you are not.
I knew you are from Russia but someone told me that you are not.

I am talking to someone in the present in both the cases.

Rgds,
Nene.

2

The two correct ways to say this at the present moment would be:

“I knew you were from Russia, but someone told me that you were not.”
“I knew you were from Russia, but someone told me that you are not.”

The first one is more “proper” than the second one, but they’re both correct. The reason is that the verb “knew” changes the following verbs to the past tense also.

The reason we have the choice of present or past in the second clause is that we have two choices of how to deal with it:

  1. Purely through grammar rules (so “were” in past tense).
  2. With the knowledge that the information is still true (so present tense “are”).
3

Thanks Jamie,

That was an excellent explanation.

4

Then, Jamie, could the second sentence below be grammatically okay, right?

I knew you were from Russia.
I knew you are from Russia.

The fact that the listener is from Russia doesn’t change in the past when the speaker knew and now when the speaker is saying: it is always true - I think it matches #2 you gave:

Actually, in Korean, the second one is proper. The first one sounds like “I knew you were from Russia but now I know you are not.” Anyway, thank you for the good question & good answer. This part was always picky to me. :slight_smile:

5

exactly. i think this is past and present tence

6

so along the same lines, could someone explain which “tense” the following sentence is in, and why… “I knew you could do it”

7

Both clauses are in the simple past tense.